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This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Posted on the 28 July 2014 by Kaminomi @OrganizationASG

This is how you can watch anime legally in 2014

So, I guess it’s time to update the legal anime list that I did more than a year ago.

Since the appearance of the 2013 list, some streaming services have advanced, some have ended, and others…others find a way to get worse. Oh, and new streaming services are here! But whatever the case, they exist and they’re backed by Japanese publishers, so that can only mean they need to be on this list. This is about as comprehensive as some blogger from New York can form at this time, as this lists streaming services in many countries. So in addition to what’s considered the biggest streaming service (Crunchyroll) a streaming service in Singapore is also listed (Anibee). So this should have everything that matters. Probably.

Under each service is what country you can watch it, how you can watch it, and extra stuff that may or may not be a good thing. Also under it is criticism from people that have used the services, because actual critique is cool you know? I admit not everything has been critiqued, so if you happen to be in the region for these services, give it a check out and see how things are, then provide your criticism so I can include it in the article. If there are any mistakes, let me know of them so I can correct them!

Now, here’s a look at all the services for you to check out:

Table of Contents

  1. Crunchyroll
  2. Hulu
  3. FUNimation
  4. Youtube
  5. Netflix
  6. Anime Sols
  7. The Anime Network
  8. Viz Anime/Neon Alley
  9. Crackle
  10. Viki
  11. Daisuki
  12. Viewster
  13. Nico Nico (JP)
  14. Wakanim (UK)
  15. Animax (UK)
  16. Anime Digital Network (FR)
  17. Wakanim (FR)
  18. Dybex (FR)
  19. Anibee (SG)
  20. Anime Lab (AU)
  21. Hanabee (AU)
  22. Anime on Demand (GER)
  23. MyVideo Schweiz (GER)

Crunchyroll

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally Crunchyroll

Where you can watch it: Worldwide. With region locking for anime in most countries. If you live in North America, you’ll get all of the titles…provided it’s not licensed by Funimation for the most part!

Subbed or Dubbed: You’ll mostly get subbed titles on the service. Though with the Stardust Crusaders and Toradora! dub on Crunchyroll, you’ll get that .1% that has dubs.

How you can watch it: Online, On Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, Apple iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Chromecast, Apple TV, and Roku Box; CR videos can be watched on Anime Planet.

Anything Extra:  Free Trial link:  https://www.crunchyroll.com/freetrial/anime

Criticism:

Lauren (Otaku Journalist): People have found plenty of reasons to nitpick Crunchyroll, from its shady beginnings as a fansub site to its sometimes sub-par video quality. But there’s one reason I’ll always stick by it, and that’s because Crunchyroll lets me vote with my dollars. Crunchyroll’s unique compensation system ensures that anime publishers get paid in proportion to your views. So the more you watch of your favorite show on Crunchyroll, the more money goes toward that show’s publisher.

A lot of people have an issue with freezing videos, but as one of the small majority of users who pay for Crunchyroll (just 10 percent do), I don’t have any issues. I recommend the paid option since you’re not actually helping CR any more than the ads they were showing you were helping them; you’re just helping yourself to a better experience. My tip? Wait until Black Friday, when CR has typically offered 50% off the paid subscription before you buy.

Mike (Anime Herald): Crunchyroll is pretty much my go-to for streaming anime. It plays nicely with my Roku, and the selection, given any season, tends to be fantastic. The price is fair, and the presentation is fairly functional, both in their apps and on the web.

That said, there’s certainly room for improvement.

Possibly my biggest gripe is the lack of real consistency in subtitle quality. Certain shows subtitle everything, from the dialogue, to the opening themes, while others provide the barest of minimums. In addition, it’s not unusual for a series to have glaring grammatical errors, or translations that are simply wrong. For example, House of Five Leaves’ opening translates the English phrase “Sign of Love” as “sayonara.”

Still, for the cost of a McDonald’s combo meal, it’s probably the best deal around for North American anime fans.

Raindrops (Raindrops and Daydreams): From the perspective of someone in the UK, Crunchyroll runs the best value streaming service around, hands down. With more than 40 simulcasts running and a colossal back catalogue, their manga and live action offerings make the cost of an all-access subscription easy to justify – even with the knowledge that we’re locked out of some shows which are available to viewers in the US.

There are still some areas which could use improvement. I’ve had a few technical problems with streams stopping unexpectedly this season and the subtitling is better for some shows than others. And of course, I’d love to see the day when Crunchyroll is streaming even more titles and has a wider international reach. But overall I’m very happy with the current state of their service!

Marow (Anime Viking): I live in Sweden and as a result my legal outlets for anime streaming are few. Essentially, it all boils down to Crunchyroll, as the few other alternatives – Daisuki and Viewster (the latter one is odd!) – are too poor in comparison. They have a bad library and just as bad video quality, making it pointless to watch via them. It becomes even more confusing as the series they stream also are available on Crunchyroll, making it all pointless. Neither of these two are actively investing in anime either – especially surprising in Daisuki’s case – which only makes the situation weirder.

Regarding Crunchyroll, I will have my own post up on my own blog Anime Viking in the upcoming days. It will be rather long and detailed, going through what I think they need to improve on in the future. If you’re interested, I recommend heading over there later this week. Multiple opinions would be good, too, as it would help showcase what they lack at the moment.

My own opinion on Crunchyroll is that they get the job done, but they still have a lot to fix. Crunchyroll especially needs to clean up their image and become more transparent, as their Reddit AMA only made them seem worse. Not to mention they are in desperate need of an improved website layout and video player, both which are not fit for today’s standards.

I still subscribe to the service, but as time passes it’s becoming more difficult to stay positive about its future.

Mrs. Blunder (Project Otaku): Crunchyroll, while not always offering everything that I’d prefer to watch, tends to license most of what I do watch. As such, I can only really offer praise for them. On top of that, they’re affordable and easy to watch from anywhere. Their apps are simple to use (especially on Roku, in comparison to FUNi). My only complaint is that it seems as if Roku support is limited; i.e., you’re prone to random disconnects and errors that have no form of resolution. I experienced similar problems with the PS3 and Xbox apps, but overtime they were resolved with software updates.

Hulu

Hulu

Where you can watch it: US.

Subbed or Dubbed: Looks to be both. Not all titles of course, but you can either watch an anime subbed or dubbed.

How can you watch it: Online, On the Wii, WiiU, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Apple TV, Roku Box, Apple iPhone, Apple iPad, iPad Mini, Apple iPod Touch, Android Phones & Tables, Windows 8, Amazon Kindle Fire, Nook, Nintendo 3DS, Blu-Ray, Chromecast; also on sites as aggregators like Anime-Planet.

Anything extra: Free 1-week trial for Hulu Plus here: www.hulu.com/freetrial

Criticism: 

Mike: Hulu’s selection includes a good number of titles from the entire spectrum of publishers, which is fantastic. Being able to watch titles like Lupin III, Psycho-Pass, and Utena in one location is really a beautiful thing.

On a video quality end, I have few complaints. Their HD streams are fantastic, and their SD work, while showing some compression, are well beyond the realm of “passable.”

My biggest complaint about the fact that Hulu bogs its service down with *so many* ads is just disgusting. To make a viewer sit through adverts before getting to a show that’s broken up by more advertisements, is a bit irritating. While I could understand this for free users (bandwidth *does* cost money…), to give this treatment to paying subscribers is simply insulting.

It’s a shame, because the selection and the price are both wonderful. For US fans, it’s not the worst way to go, though there are certainly better alternatives on the market at this point.

Mrs. Blunder: Hulu is among my least favorite streaming sites. This is not so much because of its selection, but because of their business model. Like Crunchyroll, if you wish to watch the latest episodes or stream on a device, you’ll have to pay a subscription fee. The downside to this is that, even though you’re forking out money to Hulu, you’re still going to have to suffer through more ads than you’d like.

FUNimation

FUNimation

Where you can watch it: North America.

Subbed or Dubbed: Both. For certain titles.

How Can You Watch It: Online, on Roku, iPad, iPhone, Android, iPod Touch, Xbox 360

Anything Extra: Two week trial for Funimation Elite here: http://www.funimation.com/subscribe

Criticism:

My Take: The website’s been redone and there are still people complaining about the video player? I mean, really? Wasn’t that supposed to be fixed?

Mrs. Blunder: While there’s the option to subscribe, it’s easier to just pay for Hulu – you have access to all sorts of shows that way, and not just the currently airing anime. I actually ended my subscription after the trial for that reason.

Youtube

Youtube

Where can you watch it: WORLDWIDE!…but for anime as far as I can tell official stuff is region locked and served to be seen in North America.

Subbed or Dubbed: Both, but this depends on what titles are uploaded.

How can you watch it: On PS3, PS4, Wii, Xbox 360, Xbox One, WiiU, Google TV, iOS, Android 3.0, Android 4.0, Android 2.0 Phones, Android 4.0 Phones; also can watch stuff on Anime-Planet.

Anything extra: Official sites that upload anime, trailers, etc:

http://www.youtube.com/user/FUNimation

http://www.youtube.com/user/vizmedia

http://www.youtube.com/user/CrunchyrollPromo

http://www.youtube.com/user/AniplexUS

http://www.youtube.com/user/animenetwork

https://www.youtube.com/user/nozomient

http://www.youtube.com/user/MANGAentertainment

http://www.youtube.com/user/animeondemand

http://www.youtube.com/daisuki

Netflix

Netflix

Where you can watch it: Actually there are places that get Netflix, but the U.S gets more of the content than other places.

Subbed or Dubbed: Both

How you can watch it: Online, PS3, Wii, Xbox, Blu-Ray, Android, iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Nook, Windows Phone, Roku, TiVo

Anything Extra: When you sign up, you get a 1 month free trial; you cancel before it’s up, it’s free: https://signup.netflix.com/

Criticism:

Mike: As far as streaming quality goes, Netflix is simply marvelous. The service has become as essential as rabbit ears for TV fans, with its fantastic video quality, rock-solid streaming, and selection of content that will satisfy even the most picky of viewers.

Their anime selection, though, needs some work.

Netflix has been able to cultivate a selection of truly fantastic titles from the major industry players. Their collection includes a number of essentials like Trigun, Sword Art Online, and Attack on Titan. At the same time, they host a number of niche favorites like Princess Jellyfish, Welcome To The NHK, and Spice & Wolf.

Heck, their acquisition of Knights of Sidonia was an absolute coup.

Still, as of this writing, there are 77 titles on the service, which means that there is a *lot* of room for growth. Ideally, I’d like to see them branch out a bit, and continue to expand the library.

Mrs. Blunder: After losing their Starz titles, I actually stopped turning to Netflix for anime for quite some time. However, in recent months their library has slowly been expanding to include both new and old titles alike, some mainstream and well-loved, others not so much. Netflix is my go-to for dubbed titles, on the off chance that I actually feel like listening to horrible English voice acting.

Anime Sols

Anime Sols

Where you can watch it: North America

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How you can watch it: Online

Anything Extra: It’s a service where you crowdfund for products, a la something like Kickstarter. Though restricted to North America right now.

Criticism: 

Raindrops: I can’t actually use Anime Sols since I’m outside the US, but I am mentioning it anyway because I have such mixed feelings about the way it’s working. Not allowing fans outside the US to view the streams is perfectly understandable (if regrettable) but blocking us from bidding or purchasing the DVD sets too really hurts. I understand that the older shows are limited in this way because they were often licensed to countries in Europe under very strange conditions, however, I don’t understand why their new project (The File of Young Kindaichi Returns) is locked to the US when Crunchyroll is able to stream the same show across a much larger region.

We can, at least, purchase the leftover DVD sets through a limited selection of stockists later on, but I wish they’d make them available directly through Amazon if possible so we don’t end up playing hefty mark-ups buying through resellers. I’d much rather be investing that money into helping the Anime Sols projects directly rather than seeing each project almost failing until the very last minute and being unable to participate. Regional restrictions are so frustrating!

The Anime Network

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: North America.

Subbed or Dubbed: Subs and Dubs.

How can you watch it: Online, VOD (Depends on provider) iPhone, Android, Nokia, Sprint, Kindle Fire

Viz Anime/Neon Alley

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where can you watch it: North America, though I think most of the content is not available to people in Canada?

Sub or Dub: Subbed and with Neon Alley, dubbed.

How can you watch it: Online. But seriously, it’s just Hulu, but with Viz showing what they have licensed.

Criticism:

Note: Hulu criticisms apply here as well.

Mike: The service’s selection spans the Viz Library, with a few titles like Blue Exorcist included for good measure. So, basically, Neon Alley gives me access to Sailor Moon, Tiger & Bunny, and Nana, and a few random shows that don’t make it onto other streaming services.

Crackle

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: United States.

Subbed or Dubbed: Subs it seems.

How can you watch it: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android, Blackberry, Nook, Kindle Fire, Windows Phone, Sprint TV, T-Mobile TV, Smart TVs, Google Chrome, Roku, Boxee, PS3, PS4 Xbox 360, Xbox One

Anything Extra: You don’t have to sign up to access anything. There’s not a lot of anime on the service.

Criticism:

Mrs. Blunder: If you’re seeking oldschool series and have nowhere else to turn to, Crackle’s definitely a good place to go. There’s a decent sized assortment of old titles, after all. Definitely not worth the time if you’re looking for current shows, though.

Viki

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Worldwide, with some titles in multiple languages!

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How can you watch it: Online, iPhone, iPad, iPad Touch, Android, Blackberry, Kindle Fire, Roku,

Anything Extra: Their anime selection here http://www.viki.com/genres/anime. You can watch Viki content on Anime-Planet

My Take: They haven’t tried to get much anime since last year. They…they may be done with anime?

Daisuki

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Depends on region availability, but technically a worldwide service.

Subbed or Dubbed: Subs.

How can you watch it: Online, iOS

Anything Extra: It’s a free service.

Criticism:

My Take: Really, their biggest draw was allowing people to watch old titles in a legal fashion. It’s not even doing that right now. That’s disappointing.

Raindrops: Daisuki dropped off my radar entirely until their recent site renovation, which has made it much easier to see what’s available outside the US. It’s unfortunate that they’ve lost a few titles in the transition even if they never had much available outside the US in the first place.

I really like their new design and some of the features (selectable subtitles!) are great. If they could make arrangements to distribute more content in regions where it isn’t being provided locally, I’d be very interested in visiting their site more often.

Annie (Formerly of BL Updates): Daisuki, the long forgotten streaming site, really lacks variety (from what I can access anyway), but I think it’s alright if I want a free alternative to certain shows also running on Crunchyroll. It just needs…more shows.

Kuuki (Writes for OASG!): I can watch like 3 titles on this? Not really worth it.

(But the visual quality is top notch for a free thing. I’m not sure the paying sites do better. If I had known it wasn’t region locked, I’d have watched Madoka on there.)

Marow: Daisuki is a new anime streaming website launched one year ago and actually founded by six Japanese companies: Toei Animation, Aniplex, Sunrise, TMS Entertainment, Nihon Ad Systems and Dentsu. Some of these names, like Aniplex, help produce a lot of anime these days. In this regard, Daisuki should be a big deal.

Sadly, it’s far from a big deal. It’s about as little of a deal possible in anime streaming.

Today, in Sweden, I can only watch the following titles:

**Puella Magi Madoka Magi
*Sword Art Online I + II
*World Conquest Zvezda Plot
*KILL la KILL
Buddy Complex
M3 the dark metal
SUSHI NINJA
**Black Butler Book of Circus

*Series available on Crunchyroll in Sweden
**Series available on Crunchyroll outside of Sweden (includes *)

As you can see, Daisuki has nothing to offer. Despite being owned by a big fish such as Aniplex, they barely seem to stream anime worldwide (at least not in Sweden). And in the list of series above, the majority is available on Crunchyroll either way.

This begs the question: what is the point of Daisuki?

Their video player has a much lower quality than Crunchyroll – although it doesn’t freeze like Crunchyroll’s does – and every video has a large annoying watermark in the above right corner. I cannot utter anything about the subtitle quality as I have only used the service myself once – for Sword Art Online II which is oddly delayed on Crunchyroll in my region for a whole month (to promote Daisuki?) – but even the best of subtitles wouldn’t make up for a much worse video. The best part would be that Daisuki is free, whereas Crunchyroll has a subscription fee if you wish to access higher qualities. Daisuki needs to prove their existence’s worth. Because they currently have no good reason to exist.

Viewster

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Is mainly a U.S., U.K., Germany and Europe service, but you may get access to some stuff, probably not a lot of anime though.

Subbed or Dubbed: Subs for new stuff, dubs for old.

How can you watch it: Online, iPhone, Android.

Anything Extra: Their anime selection: http://www.viewster.com/genre/58/anime

Criticism:

Raindrops: This new streaming service appeared out of nowhere to offer free ad-supported anime across Europe. They only have a few titles in the UK right now (and only one of these is a simulcast) but they’re promising more content by the end of the month.

My first criticism so far is that they’re well behind the US airdates for the one simulcast they’re showing here, though to be fair this problem might be ironed out once they’ve finished setting everything up. There’s also a strange situation where they are broadcasting English-subtitled streams for titles they only have the rights to in German-speaking and Scandinavian countries. While many anime fans in those countries can understand English reasonably well, I imagine the streams would be much more successful if they offered a choice of languages for the subtitles.

I’m not generally a big fan of ad-supported platforms with no subscription options, but so far Viewster shows a lot of promise. If they can make arrangements to get more content (and speed up their simulcasts) then they could be a very useful asset for the European market. Their social media team is also very responsive and friendly.

Nico Nico

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Uh, apparently it’s only a JP streaming service.

Subbed or Dubbed: Neither, kinda.

How can you watch it: Online.

Anything Extra: Only Sailor Moon Crystal’s being simulcast to everyone.

Criticism: 

Raindrops: They’re only streaming one title this season but they’re doing so much right with it that I have to mention their service too. Sailor Moon Crystal is being streamed worldwide with subtitles in a choice of twelve different languages, completely for free. This is how streaming should be handled, in my opinion; Viz and Crunchyroll are making sure it’s available throughout the US on a variety of platforms while everyone else has an option for legal viewing too, without being restricted by language or location.

Wakanim (UK)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: UK, Isle of Man, Ireland

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How can you watch it: Online

Anything Extra: I think they’re the only streaming company with their official stance on piracy.

Criticism:

Raindrops: Another UK-only streaming service, this time with the exclusive right to distribute Anime Limited’s newest acquisitions as simulcasts. Wakanim does things a little differently and offers the simulcasts alongside download options. Users can watch an ad then ‘rent’ the latest episode for a few days, or pay to download a completely unrestricted version to keep and view on a wider selection of devices. I like that Wakanim is trying to do things a little differently, and if you only want to watch one show then you can save money with their credits system instead of splashing out on a full subscription as with Animax or Crunchyroll. The downloadable files appeal strongly to some fans with poor Internet connections. However, the service isn’t without its problems; episodes tend to go up a day late compared to the US due to problems with time zones and receiving the English subtitle files, and as I write these comments on Monday last Thursday’s episode of Terror in Resonance is still unavailable due to some kind of unspecified subtitle problem. The dubbed version of Space Dandy has been missing in action for the last three weeks, too. If Anime Limited has to have an exclusivity contract with a streaming service then I wish it was one which could post episodes at the same time they are broadcast in other English-speaking countries.

Animax UK

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: UK only.

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How can you watch it: Online, Airplay, PS3, iOS, Android, iPad, iPhone

Anything Extra: There seems to be movies on there. That’s already a step above other streaming services!

Criticism:

Raindrops: Animax is a UK-only online streaming service which originally focused on titles licensed by Kaze, though more recently they’ve been broadcasting a small number of FUNimation titles in the UK as well. My impression of them so far is quite negative; the site looks great and they’ve got a large back catalog shows, but when it comes to their simulcasts it feels as though they’re simply taking the UK rights away from international sites like Crunchyroll then forcing everyone to pay for a second subscription to see the content more slowly than they would have otherwise.

Their site works by showing each new episode for their paid subscribers for one week, then opening it up to free users for the second week as a sample. Unfortunately, they air new episodes so far behind the US that they seem to have missed the point of early access; if the new episodes are going online four days after they did in the US anyway, I may as well wait another week and just watch them for free. The fun of watching close to the Japanese airdate is part of the appeal of simulcasts.

There are rumours that Animax might start publishing a schedule to let people know when to expect new episodes to arrive, due to popular demand. While this would definitely be a welcome improvement, it’s a sign of how far they’re trailing behind the others that it’s taken this long for something so basic to be considered.

It could be argued that without Animax, the FUNimation licenses would have no outlet at all in the UK, so a slow service is better than nothing at all. I’d very much like to see the streaming industry turn away from distributor-exclusive titles and broadcast anime on as many different services as possible to cater for fans all over the world, rather than giving disappointing services an excuse to lag behind their competitors.

Anime Digital Network (FR)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: France

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How can you watch it: Online

Criticism:

Kuuki: I haven’t tried it. They seem to be pushing more for TV broadcast and DVD sales. Many things on there are only simulcasted on TV (on a paying channel, obviously). We get streaming releases two weeks after the Japanese broadcast, sometimes earlier but it’s still rare. I’m not exactly interested.

It works, like Crunchyroll, on a subscription. It’s a bit more expensive than Crunchyroll and they don’t have the same variety nor is it as fast but you get unlimited access to the whole catalog and they have big popular franchises so I guess it’s worth it if you’re interested in some older series.

Anyway, my point was, I haven’t tried it. I don’t want to. I’d rather buy their DVDs if I have to wait anyway. (And maybe the mistakes will be corrected until then … As I said I haven’t watched their stuff but there are even spelling mistakes in the titles…)

Wakanim (FR)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: France

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed or dubbed depending on the title.

How can you watch it: Online, episodes are downloadable.

Criticism:

Kuuki: I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with Wakanim. They do the opposite of Crunchyroll. The episode is free for 30 days and then you have to pay. It’s pay per episode (1€ per episode if I’m not mistaken) and you can also download it (that’s something like 2€). And, best of it all, there is a high chance you’ll get their stuff on DVD too. Some of their anime is on (free) TV too.

They do choose their series well though. I end up watching almost all of their stuff every season. As far as quality is concerned I’m not a very good judge, there are hilarious mistakes but they get corrected eventually.

I use it and like it well enough. It has a few player issues too but nothing too major.

Dybex (FR)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: France

Subbed or Dubbed: Dubbed except for recent anime (meaning those that aren’t released on DVD yet)

How can you watch it: Online

Criticism:

Kuuki: Everytime I think they’re dead in the streaming industry they release something. Though to be honest, they seem to be leaning more toward going back to DVD only releases. Especially collector editions, thankfully I love collector editions. The only new thing they licensed lately was Pupa. And we all know how Pupa was …

It’s quite a shame though, I quite liked them. The main problem I had with them is how late they were for DVD releases. I still have this problem … They also lack good communication. Thank god I have a radar for everything Jormungand related or else I’d never know I’d get it on DVD (years later but I’ll get it!).

Either way, yes, pretty much dead in the streaming business. They still have some videos up but they aren’t the best quality. I’m not sure about their paying episodes but I’m pretty sure it’s a better move to buy the DVDs.

Anibee (SG)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Singapore

Subbed or Dubbed: Subbed

How can you watch it: Online

Anime Lab (AU)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Australia and New Zealand only.

Subbed or dubbed: Both.

How you can watch it: Online.

Criticism:

Annie: Backed by Madman, Anime Lab is a new streaming site that’s currently in beta. They said it’s likely to turn into a subscription service in the future, but for now it’s free. There’s a decent catalog available and series are available either in sub or dub, though SAO and Space Dandy have both. Subbed series have the whole series available, while dubbed series either have the full series or only have 2 episodes available -perhaps it’ll be available fully in the final version of the site, who knows. There’s the option of streaming in medium or high quality. There’s no app at the moment but the site plays fine on mobile/tablet devices. I can’t give too much crit since it’s fairly new and in beta, but it’s a massive improvement from the previous Madman site. Aside from Crunchyroll, it’s probably the go-to place for legal streaming anime in AU/NZ.

Hanabee (AU)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Australia and New Zealand only.

Subbed or dubbed: Both.

How you can watch it: Online.

Criticism:

Annie: Hanabee has started streaming a couple of shows. It’s also in beta, but I haven’t tried it because there’s nothing of interest to me. I’m not sure how often they update but I’m pretty sure they simulcast – they have a couple of completed shows from last season and one or two from their back-catalogue. They’re also streaming Captain Earth which is behind by a few eps. All series are subbed, if I’m not mistaken.

Anime on Demand (GER)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Germany, Switzerland, Austria

Subbed or Dubbed: Mostly dubbed, some subs available

How can you watch it: Online

Anything Extra: Some first episodes are available for free on their youtube site:

http://www.youtube.com/user/animeondemand

For the rest you have to pay per stream or you pay a monthly fee.

MyVideo Schweiz (GER)

This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Where you can watch it: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein

Subbed or Dubbed: German Dub only

How can you watch it: Online

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Justin

Justin is the founder of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses. Anime & manga fan that likes to blog about anime and manga, is addicted to sports, and weak to crossovers. You can follow Justin on Twitter @Kami_nomi. This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014

Latest posts by Justin (see all)

  • This Is How You Can Watch Anime Legally in 2014 - July 28, 2014
  • Reference Resource Mondays: Let The Games Begin! - July 28, 2014
  • Notes of Great Teacher Onizuka 2014 Episode 3 - July 26, 2014
  • What I Learned From Starting A Blog, Year 3 - July 23, 2014
  • Stepping Into The World of Sengoku Basara - July 21, 2014

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